My primary research activities since 2004 have addressed ethics and values in classical biological control practice and policy, the broader social institutional context of invasive species control efforts. The practice of introducing novel organisms to control invasive pests has the greatest possibility of providing sustainable pest control, but has been clouded by ethical concerns, which has made policymaking difficult. This research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and has taken me to New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Vietnam, France and Switzerland.

Social science research into biological control practice and policy

Biological control is the action of parasites, predators, and pathogens in maintaining another organism’s density at a lower average than would occur in their absence. Thus, biological control is a natural phenomenon, a field of study, and a deliberate pest control strategy. It is a keystone to ecologically rational and integrated pest management (IPM) in agriculture.My research in this field investigates the social, economic, ethical, and policy factors shaping, driving and constraining this sceintific research field and its institutions.

From 2004-present, I been funded by CDFA on a research project titled “Biological Control of Arthropod Pests in California Agriculture: Current Status and Future Potential.” Initially I investigated the economics, scientific practice, extension sociology, and policy context shaping biocontrol in California. The best paper to come out of this CDFA funded resarch is The decline of public interest agricultural science and the dubious
future of crop biological control in California. I coauthored this with two UC collaborators and SCU students, and it was published in fall 2011 in Agriculture & Human Values.

Below you can see a picture of a low-tech commercial insectary that rears predatory mites on bugs living on these plants, and these benefical insects are used as a pesticide alterantive on California strawberries on the Central Coast.

I attended a field day near Firebaugh and witnessed this outreach scientist from Rincon-Vitova insectary explaining how to use a D-vac to survey a cotton field for beneficial insects.

Pretending to play Cricket at
Lincoln University in New Zealand. Photo courtesy Charlie Pickett

Farm Advisor Roger Duncan leads an Almond field day about pesticide reduction

Here is an article published in the January 2010 edition of Bioscience, coauthored with Nick Jordan, titled: Enhancing the Multifunctionality of US Agriculture. I was particularly pleased that Stephen Gliessman, an old UCSC teacher of mine, recommended our approach in his editorial "Landscape Multifunctionality and Agriculture" in the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 34(5) 465.

I contributed to a policy forum article addressing the problems of the biofuel gold rush recommending instead the "Sustainable Development of the
Agricultural Bio-Economy," published in the journal Science June 15, 2007. I co-presented with him at the AAAS in February 2006, which was a lot of fun.

This is Cliff Ohmart, a leading figure in sustainable agriculture practices and outreach. He helped transform the way winegrape growers in California think about sustainability. I don't think he gets enough credit for all the creative and dynamic work he has done for two decades in this area.